Speak, Inc. E-News • Volume 1 • Issue #6

Top 5 Speakers on Branding

A. Roger Blackwell - Brands That Rock
B. Joe Calloway - Becoming a Category of One
C. Thomas Winninger - Living Your Brand: Universal Principles to Turn Your Brand Into Market Dominance
D. Ira Blumenthal - Brand-Building for Your Future
E. Rick Barrera - Touchpoint Branding

Maintaining and/or developing a unique corporate identity is a hot topic these days. The following five speakers have created unique keynotes designed to motivate and inspire employees and executives at all levels of the organization to incorporate strategies to move their brand to another level in the marketplace. For information on booking one of the following speakers, contact your Speak, Inc.representative.

A. Roger Blackwell
Brands That Rock

In today’s competitive arena, the battle to attract and maintain customers continues to intensify. Firms of all sizes –both consumer-oriented and industrial--are constantly revamping their products and service offerings, honing their customer service skills, and revising their loyalty programs—all in a quest to capture more attention and dollars from customers, an increasingly elusive group. Some firms have customers, but only the most successful have fans.

In their new book Brands That Rock: How to Win Fans and Influence Profits (Wiley, October 2003), Roger Blackwell and Kristina Stephan examine the world of rock ‘n roll for innovative alternatives to “business-as-usual” branding and marketing campaigns. It’s a unique look at how businesses can increase brand awareness, customer loyalty, and profits by transforming their customers into fans with lessons for any organization’s marketing, branding, and customer-related strategies.

Think of what happens when The Rolling Stones or Madonna enter the stage in front of a 50,000-person crowd. People scream as Mick Jagger walks toward their side of the arena; they cheer at the opening riffs of their favorite tunes; they belt out the words to most of the songs; and they dance, jump, and rock for hours. These are not just ‘crazy’ teenagers; they are responsible adults with families, good jobs, and college or graduate degrees. Often they are “baby boomers”—the most important markets for many organizations.

The power of rock and roll and its celebrities is undeniable; the loyalty showered upon those who create it, unmatched; and the lessons for corporate America, endless. In this fun as well as profitable presentation, Blackwell takes business managers behind the music and reveals branding and marketing lessons that can boost creative thinking, increase market share, enhance the longevity and success of a brand, and create a brand that becomes a long-term cultural icon. He focuses on how to:

• Create a brand that becomes adopted by culture and captures a long-term position in the market place
• Evolve a brand without alienating current fans
• Reinvent a brand and recapture market share and dominance
• Capture a unique position in the market by developing the entertainment value of your product experience
• Build a fan base by reaching out to market segments that your competitors see as secondary
• Develop a two-way relationship with customers that not only lets you connect to fans but lets fans connect to you
• Create and license a brand to the point that it becomes a lifestyle.
• For industrial marketers, create excitement in the trade by treating “logistics” as part of the brand

Blackwell also examines a unique perspective on how to connect with customers on an emotional level, a key factor in the long-term success of both musical and corporate brands. He showcases, in a unique and entertaining format, case studies, strategies, and analogies for any business –whether consumer oriented or industrial --to bolster brand-loyalty, and create brands less likely to be affected by competitive onslaughts, from price reductions to flashy ads.

B. Joe Calloway
Becoming a Category of One

Excerpt from Chapter I: ”We just Decided To Go”

The movie “Apollo 13” opens with a gathering of astronauts at the home of Jim and Marilyn Lovell to watch the live television broadcast of an incredible event. Their fellow astronaut, Neal Armstrong, is about to become the first human being to set foot on the moon. There is a light-hearted, party atmosphere among the group. But as newsman Walter Cronkite announces the event, and we hear Armstrong’s immortal words “One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind,” the mood becomes quiet, almost reverential. Even Cronkite, the veteran newsman with years of covering historic world events, seems nearly overwhelmed with the enormity of the moment.

Shortly after Armstrong’s moon walk, the party breaks up and everyone goes their separate ways. Jim Lovell, as played by Tom Hanks, is now alone with his wife Marilyn in their back yard. Looking up at the moon, Lovell says, “From now on we live in a world where man has walked on the moon. It’s not a miracle. We just decided to go.”

Deciding to go is the first step on the journey to greatness and becoming a Category of One. Unfortunately, it’s also the step usually not taken. Most companies never decide to go. They never make the decision to become extraordinary. What they do is make the decision to talk about becoming extraordinary or to have meetings about becoming extraordinary or write mission statements about becoming extraordinary. But they never truly make a commitment that takes hold, becomes real, and creates a new level of success.

A Deliberate Decision

One of the common threads I’ve observed among extraordinary companies is that they make very deliberate “decisions to go” in terms of pursuing greatness. The decision can take many forms. It might be a decision that is initially made by one person, maybe the president of the company. It could be a group decision reached over a period of years, culminating with someone in a meeting saying, “Lets do this thing. Lets see how far we can go, how much fun we can have, how much money we can make.” But at some point, most extraordinary companies make a clearly defined decision to go. It literally comes down to a moment of truth. Then, to sustain their success, they must recommit to that decision again and again.

From Chapter 2: Know Who You Are

Here’s the toughest question that most companies can’t answer: “Who are you?”When I ask that question of my clients, and I usually do, I’m generally met by one of these responses: “I don’t understand the question.” or, “We make/sell _____ (fill in the blank with whatever product the company makes/sells)”. When met by one of these responses, I’ll broaden the parameters of the question a bit. I’ll ask them to think about what’s important to them, what they’re about, what’s up with them, what the deal is with them, why they come to work everyday, what good they are in the world, what is meaningful to them about their work, what they’re proud of, what they stand for, or what the point of it all is.

Sometimes, when given these hopefully thought provoking options, they still respond with “I don’t understand the question.” This means trouble. Trouble for them, not me. It’s trouble because if they have no sense of who they are, what’s really important, and what the point of it all is, they are going to find it difficult to compete with a competitor who has got these basics figured out. What we’re talking about is a sense of purpose. Every Category of One company that I’ve ever worked with has created clarity around the “why” of their business, not just the “what” of their business.

Some companies will say that the point is to make money or make a profit. That’s like saying that the point of life is to eat. It’s backwards. Of course you have to eat to stay alive and you have to make a profit to stay in business, but surely eating or
making a profit aren’t the point of it all. Assuming we all agree that making a profit is a good and necessary thing, then perhaps the question to ask is what’s the best way for us to go about making a profit.

C. Thomas Winninger
Living Your Brand: Universal Principles to Turn Your Brand Into Market Dominance

Today, brand is everything. It is your organizational culture, it is your market position, it is your price support, it is the voice to your customer. Everything you do must communication your brand!

Starbucks has woven coffee into fabric of life
Harley has become a life style
Nike has leveraged the deep emotional connection with sports and life
Intel has gotten "inside"
Disney is family entertainment
Volvo is the safe car
Italy is fashion clothing
France is romantic wine

How you benefit from these strategies:

• Turning brand into corporate sales culture
• Supporting brand consistency in your category
• Making your brand a celebrity
• Turning brand into SOP (standards of practice)
• Using your brand to support full price
• How to stand out in the new customer universe
• Identifying the "one thing" and turning it into market share
• Creating brand loyalty
• Taking your brand value to the next level

Who will benefit from this program:

No matter what you sell, be it a product or a service, no matter whether you sell it in a two-step distribution system or a one-step distribution system, the next five years could be the end of the way most of us do business. Everyone from accounting firms to sneaker makers to restaurants are trying to figure out how to transcend their category and create buzz like Hilfiger.

D. Ira Blumenthal
Brand-Building for Your Future

Products are consumed. Brands are purchased. In our branded world, we make Xerox copies, blow our nose in Kleenex, snack on Jell-O, relax in the Jacuzzi and cover wounds with Band Aids. From Nike on our hats to Tommy on our shirts to Swatch on our watches and Starbucks in our cups, branding is critical to business development. This session focuses on the philosophy, strategy, guiding principles and "best practices" to create, build, maintain, and manage brand success.

Ira Blumenthal is the longest running retainer based consultant to the "world's most recognized brand...," Coca-Cola. He is the founder of the "Branding Institute," and has counseled world class clients on brand creation, brand development, brand extension, co-branding, component branding, private label branding and more. Example branding clients (for both speeches and counseling) include Delta Airlines, Fairmont Hotels, McDonald's, Wal*Mart, Exxon and more... A visiting university instructor (on "Branding"), a published author with over 100 articles on marketing and "branding" and used as a subject matter expert by publications such as "The Wall Street Journal," "BrandWeek," "USA Today," CNN, etc... IRA is highly focused on "brand" and "branding."

His keynote speeches on "branding" are typically customized for the group and event he addresses. "Brand-Building For Your Future" focuses on the compelling imperatives related to creating, growing, maintaining, extending and nurturing a brand. "Everyone's a brand manager..." says Blumenthal. He continues, "Regardless of what your functional area is. . .YOU are a brand manager. Everyone in the organization is responsible and empowered to project and protect the brand message, positioning, imagery and culture. EVERYONE is a brand manager and must be a brand ambassador. After all, the key to success in brand-building is extending brand reach and presence."

"From Swatch on the watch... Nike on the shoe... Band-Aid on our wounds... Jell-O in our bowl... Q-Tips and Kleenex in our bathrooms... and Xerox copies (even when made on a Toshiba Copier)... we are in a branded world!"

E. Rick Barrera
Touchpoint Branding

A BRAND is a promise of a GUARANTEED EXPERIENCE. Yet many companies still define the service EXPERIENCE as the human-to-human interactions that occur between the company’s front line associates and its customers. Customers, on the other hand, define a great experience as getting what they want, when and where they want it, with as little effort and hassle as possible. In some cases, that means with no human involvement at all!

To ensure the delivery of guaranteed experiences, leading edge companies are redefining the service experience at the intersection of three critical TouchPoints: The Offer TouchPoint, The Systems TouchPoint, and The Human TouchPoint. When UNIQUE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES are built around these three TouchPoints, customers report better, more consistent service and companies report higher profits and more loyal customers.

Key Concepts:

Customer service is no longer the responsibility of the front line or of the customer service department. Because customers have broadened and redefined their expectations for every product and service, every function and department must redefine their role in effective service delivery. Only when all departments work seamlessly together to create unique customer experiences that are consistently delivered can a company build a strong brand.

• Inconsistency DESTROYS brand value
• Since the greatest variability occurs in human- to-human contact, you must design systems and offers that minimize the value customers place on human TouchPoints to meet their needs
• Large companies must build easily accessible human scale experiences for their customers rather than forcing the customer to navigate the
  organizational labyrinth
• Experiences must be designed to allow for scaleable, profitable growth
• Recruiting and training of successful service professionals requires significantly more effort and investment than is typical in most companies
• Customer service delivery is a profession and must be treated as such
• Empowerment is not enough! Leaders must demand and measure front line accountability for branded service excellence
• Front line teams must have input and control of the service process
• Recovery strategies must be designed and in place BEFORE the front line requires them

Audiences:

This speech topic is appropriate for anyone at any level who is interested in delivering UNIQUE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES to their customers. Executives will find it a unique approach to brand building that involves EVERY department in a holistic approach to serving customers. Middle managers will find it a roadmap to customer service success. Front line service personnel will learn what they must do to ensure that they deliver consistently positive experiences with customers.

Keynote Participants Learn:

• How leading edge companies like British Airways, USAA Insurance, Dell Computer, Lexus, Amazon.com and Disney consistently deliver branded experiences that create loyal lifetime customers
• How "great customer service" is being redefined
• How to use non-conventional methodologies to fully comprehend the visceral nature of customers’ experiences
• How the role of each department or function must change to deliver unique branded experiences
• How to change your thinking about service delivery from the logical to the emotional
• How to see your company through your customers’ eyes
• Why the internal departments are the key to success
• Why service failure is so prevalent
• How to spread the service message internally and how to keep it alive and meaningful
• The role of culture in service delivery and how to create a service driven culture
• How to create customer rituals and "signature moments"
• How to create unique offers
• How to build customer friendly delivery systems How to invent a unique front line personality